Separation of carrier free 65Zn and 66,67,68Ga, the alpha-particle activation products of copper with HDEHP

A radiochemical charged particle activation procedure has been developed for the production and separation of the carrier free radioisotopes, 65Zn and 66,67,68Ga. The carrier free radioisotopes produced by the irradiation of a pure copper foil with 50 MeV α-particle beam through the nuclear reactions, (α, αpxn), (α, pxn) and (α, xn), have been quantitatively separated from the activated copper matrix from an aqueous hydrochloric acid and an alkaline solution using the liquid cation exchanger HDEHP, as an extractant. Detection of different radionuclides in the activated copper target and verification of their purity at different stages of their LLX separation have been performed by γ-ray spectrometric studies. (author)